Bone headed move from Kathy Griffin indeed, however what is noticeable is that it elicited an immediate response from Trump where the actual murders in Portland, well that took Trump a while to get around to responding.

Good morning. It is 57 degrees and cloudy rainy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a sunny day with temperatures in the 70s this afternoon. Yes you read that correctly and hopefully I read that correctly as well. We might see the sun today.

At 8:15 a.m ET DOW futures are +30 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

The noise continues to evolve over Trump's links to Russia. Trump's right hand man/son-in-law Kushner is under great suspicion as the go to guy with these strange connections. The entire mess appears to be hinging on Trump's need for Russian investment and more than likely a host of peripheral activities as well including his obligations to his Russian handlers. Meanwhile Trump is going about the business of ruining connections with Europe of all places. I believe the man is crazy.

"President Trump has a magnetic personality and exudes positive energy, which is infectious to those around him. He has an unparalleled ability to communicate with people, whether he is speaking to a room of three or an arena of 30,000. He has built great relationships throughout his life and treats everyone with respect. He is brilliant with a great sense of humor … and an amazing ability to make people feel special and aspire to be more than even they thought possible."

summary - The human brain is much better than previously thought at discovering and avoiding disease, a new study reports. Our sense of vision and smell alone are enough to make us aware that someone has a disease even before it breaks out. And not only aware – we also act upon the information and avoid sick people.

“We are going through a rough period,” McCain said. “We really are, and for me to tell you that we aren’t, politically, is not fair. But we’ve gone through other troubled times. I can remember the Watergate scandal and how it brought down a president. I’m not suggesting that’s going to happen to this president, but we are in a scandal and every few days another shoe drops from this centipede, and we’ve got to get through that.”

That has raised questions about why he (Russian banker, Sergey N. Gorkov) was meeting with Mr. Kushner at a crucial moment in the presidential transition, according to current and former officials familiar with the investigations.

Good morning. It is 57 degrees and cloudy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts temperatures in the 60s this afternoon, clouds, and probably rain. We are in for a mostly rainy week, only a few breaks of sunshine. It's chilly here, I have on long sleeves and a jacket.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -24 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open modestly lower.

I'm watching MSNBC as I type and the story is still revolving around Kushner's attempt to make back channel connections with Russia and Kushner's motivations. This story has a lot of fire in it. We also see that Germany is calling on Europe to splinter away from the US. It is simply stunning to me that a man like Trump has the power to affect these types of massive changes. This is a disaster.

summary - NASA's Juno mission is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about Jupiter specifically, and gas giants in general, according to a pair of Science papers released today. The Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since July 2016, passing within 3,000 miles of the equatorial cloudtops.

McCain said that while Isis “can do terrible things and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith ... but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election”.

...Gianforte’s assault is a glaring display of toxic masculinity in an environment made particularly toxic by the man in the White House and his media bullying. But more telling and more ominous is the degree to which Republicans no longer seem to care...

I wrote the following comment on the Kushner article linked below at the NYT website -

What exactly is this very strange Trump, Kushner, Bannon triumvirate up to anyhow? What is it? It seems like they are treating the globe and America like it’s some kind of massive shady self wealth infusing real estate deal using suspicious treasonous espionage activity with Russia, of all places. Is this what we have, the presidency is a private company seeking investors with one qualification, they got big bank, to expand a Trump brand name globally and if you’re not in on the action, you’re a loser. Where in the heck does working for the benefit of the American people fit into this thing?

Good morning. It is 55 degrees and raining here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts rain and temperatures in the 60s this afternoon. The longer range forecast shows a week of rain with just a few breaks and temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Could this be the pattern of the rest of the Summer, it could be - lots of rain, and lots of rain. Given the effects of global warming, it seems like a possibility. It is lush out there, the green is very strong and the trees are growing and growing. Maybe this part of the country turns into a light rain forest, less humidity, milder temperatures, and lots of rain.

The market is closed on Memorial Day and will reopen on Tuesday.

What can we say. The country is feeling the effects of a man who has little organization, runs around in a chaotic way creating mayhem and mischief. The President of the United States is the emperor with no clothes on. The instability, lack of direction, lack of meaningful intent, lack of basic human kindness, I mean this mess is just plain old ugly. The GOP must step up already. Look boys, and it is mostly white guys, get somebody in the White House to read this man the riot act and impose a little direction and civility to this thing. This is a major disaster.

A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother's house. It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife. When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.Looking down, she saw a snake. Before she could move, the snake spoke to her. He said, "I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you.""No," replied the girl. "I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bite is poisonous.""No, no," said the snake. "If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently."The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.Suddenly, she said, "I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness."The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother's house.Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her."How could you do this to me?" she cried. "You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!""You knew what I was when you picked me up," hissed the snake as he slithered away.

Reading is such a modern cultural invention that there is no specific area in the brain dedicated to it. Scientists have found that learning to read as an adult reconfigures evolutionarily ancient brain structures hitherto assigned to different skills. These findings were obtained in a large-scale study in India in which completely illiterate women learned how to read and write for six months.

Good morning. It is 55 degrees and rainy cloudy here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a rainy day with temperatures in the low 60s this afternoon. The weekend on the other hand looks like it's going to be good, temperatures in the 70s and sunshine. That's great.

At 9:20 a.m. ET the DOW is -11 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open modestly lower.

We see that Montana elected a violent psycho Gianforte for their Congressperson. Admittedly most of the votes were sent in early, regardless, this is disgusting. We also see that Kushner is officially on the radar of the FBI. We pretty much knew this last week, but now it's official.

Looks like Trump has had a complete spiritual rebirth after having met the Pope. Trump is now all in on pursuing peace in the world, as long as it includes tax cuts for billionaires and serious cuts in social spending for the poor including food stamps, oh and as long as the war machine gets a huge boost. Treason is optional.

I have not been following the Hannity story about Rich because let's face it, anything that Hannity gets his hands on is going to turn out to be another sordid mess. However if he is feeling some heat for offering another sordid mess, then that might be for the best. America would be much better off if Hannity's fate went the way of O'Reilly's.

summary - There's something new to look for in the heavens, and it's called a 'synestia,' according to planetary scientists. A synestia, they propose, would be a huge, spinning, donut-shaped mass of hot, vaporized rock, formed as planet-sized objects smash into each other.

The man is unfortunately losing it. He's so wound up with the plaque of being impossibly partisan and hateful that he is moving into crazy land. A lot of what I hear from FOX seems crazy, but here we are talking about he's hallucinating, it's pathological.

Exaggerated growth assumptions in presidential budgets are an age-old tradition, but this budget takes it to new levels, assuming we reach 3 percent growth, a full percentage point above what the Congressional Budget Office forecasts.

Good morning. It is cloudy and 59 degrees here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a cloudy day with temperatures in the 70s this afternoon. Hey it looks like we are in for a very nice looking weekend with some sunshine and perfect temperatures.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are +12 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open modestly higher.

We got to see the vicious quality of Trump's hideous budget yesterday. The irony of course being that the people who voted for this monstrosity of a president will indeed be among those most adversely affected. When we talk about things like cutting food stamps, recall that it is white poverty in areas like Kentucky and West Virginia that rely on food stamps to exist and who also utilize this benefit more than anyone else.

summary - Scientists analyzing 7.2 million-year-old fossils uncovered in modern-day Greece and Bulgaria suggest a new hypothesis about the origins of humankind, placing it in the Eastern Mediterranean and not -- as customarily assumed -- in Africa, and earlier than currently accepted. The researchers conclude that Graecopithecus freybergi represents the first pre-humans to exist following the split from the last chimpanzee-human common ancestor.

The events of the past four months have demonstrated that Donald Trump is not going to solve the problem he was elected to address; neither the underlying economic and social ruptures nor the alienation that emerges from them.

Good morning. It is 57 degrees and somewhat sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a mostly cloudy day with temperatures in the 70s this afternoon. The longer range forecast for the week is mild, temperatures in the 60s and 70s during the day and a mix of rain and sun. It's been a very rainy Spring in these parts.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are +41 and the price of oil per barrel is slightly lower. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

I've had the good fortune of being completely and utterly out of touch with the news over the past three days. Checking in briefly right now, we see there's been a bombing in England. I'm sorry to see this because as we know, these incidents tend to make people gravitate towards the tough talking reactionaries in society, meaning it all ends in further disaster.

Good morning. It is 66 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a partly cloudy day with temperatures in the 70s this afternoon. We had quite the thunderstorms last night and considering the temperatures suddenly jumped into the 90s for two days, it was expected. The wind was allegedly gusting up to 60MPH.

At 7:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are +27 and the price of oil per barrel is up. At this time, the market is poised to open modestly higher.

I was reading through a recent interview with Tony Schwartz the co-author 'Art Of The Deal'. I think I finally got one of Tony's main points. This is that Trump is not about right or wrong, Trump is about winning and losing. This clicks, this fits, and this explains a lot of very strange behavior. The winning that Trump is interested in, is his own winning. He is the winner, right. Tony also believes that Trump is in a meltdown. This seems plausible given Trump's odd paranoia and endless conflicting statements. One thing we can easily say is that the Trump presidency is severely wounded, this thing is a mess and the sense that the country is under a dark miserable cloud continues.

summary - People who struggle to cope with uncertainty or the ambiguity of potential future threats may have an unusually large striatum, an area of the brain already associated with general anxiety disorder, according to research.

Good morning. It is 79 degrees and sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts sunshine and temperatures in the 90s this afternoon. It looks like we are heading into a really sweet period weather-wise with temperatures in the 70s and sunshine over the weekend. I finally broke out the shorts.

At 9:15 a.m. ET DOW futures are -77 and the price of oil per barrel is down. The market is poised to open significantly lower.

Roger Ailes has passed away and the news has temporarily shifted to Ailes. I am somewhat split on his death as I was abhorred by his political activity and believe that he has brought great misery to the country through FOX News. Meanwhile we have a Special Prosecutor at last and hopefully Trump will be ejected sooner rather than later. Ailes in a sense is responsible for the hopelessly unstable, miserable, and almost repulsive president that we all presently unfortunately have to endure.

I’ve been thinking about Trump-Russia and I’ve had a few new ideas. This is purely conjecture, this is not anything that I’ve read or found from other sources. This is simply me trying to put together one plus one.

We start with last year’s campaign. I had been thinking through one quality that I found in Trump’s stump speech that was hit over and over. This was the quality that Trump was beyond the pale, he was offensive beyond belief. I could not recall a campaigner who was so offensive to not only those things in politics that I appreciate but also offensive to my notion about how a campaigner ought to conduct their campaign. And let's especially not forget about how that offensiveness was so pointed and directed at Clinton, the conspiracies, the emails, the illness, all these made up offensive attacks.

We know that there is the allegation that Trump colluded with the Russians to gain the upper hand. We know that there is the allegation that Trump campaign aides colluded with Russians for that same upper hand. We know about some of the methods employed, from fake news, to website trolls, to obnoxious talking heads with a tight script.

Let’s take the former and the latter and add them together. By that I mean let’s add Trump’s obnoxious campaign message which was so cutting and impugning to Clinton and her supporters and combine it with the allegation of Russian collusion.

What do we get when we add these two together? Well we might get a Russian intelligence psychological talking point abstract which was handed to Trump during or prior to the beginning of the campaign. Trump then learns these essential psychological talking points and then repeats them myriad times through 2016. Think about it. It was an effective campaign, Trump ultimately won. Why were his words so bitter and biting and obnoxious. Now you might say that this is Trump, this is how he is. But think about it again. How smart is Trump? If you threw a baby and a gold bar into a pool and Trump had to get one or the other, what would he get. I digress but the point is Trump apparently reads an article and then wants to make that policy. We are talking about a very thin minded human being, forget about thin skinned, he is that indeed, but thin minded. How did Trump, Trump now, come up with such a brutally devastating campaign message? I do not believe for one instant that he came up with it on his own. It was too impugning, too divisive, too effective. No, I suggest that Trump had been working in collusion with Russia for a while and that he got those talking points from Russian intelligence who came up with the psychological warfare on Clinton and her supporters. Hey, maybe I need a tin foil hat, I’m ready for one at this point, but I also do not say this as fact, it’s my notion based on what I am reading and seeing.

summary - Humans have long been shaping Earth's landscape, but now scientists know that we also can shape our near-space environment with radio communications, which have been found to interact with particles in space.

They are allowing themselves to be permanently tarnished through their association with a man whose name is destined to become the root of a political epithet signifying disgrace, like McCarthyite or Nixonian.They aren’t just selling out their country. They’re selling out themselves.

Good morning. It is a very pleasant 64 degrees and it is sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a hot sunny day with temperatures in the 90s this afternoon. Hey it's going to be a hot one. This will be the hottest day yet of the year.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are -154 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to severely tumble at the bell.

As you know the turmoil surrounding Trump continued full force last night with the revelation of Comey's notes on Trump's interest in obstructing justice. Trump is in deep doo doo and we saw this coming a mile away. unfortunately Trump's inept miserable presidency is rattling the crap out of the market.

summary - Heavy rain on Mars reshaped the planet's impact craters and carved out river-like channels in its surface billions of years ago, according to a new study. Scientists show that changes in the atmosphere on Mars made it rain harder and harder, which had a similar effect on the planet's surface as we see on Earth.

“As president, I wanted to share with Russia which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining to terrorism and airline flight safety...Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against Isis and terrorism.”

His inability to focus his attention makes it hard for him to learn and master facts. He is ill informed about his own policies and tramples his own talking points. It makes it hard to control his mouth.

Good morning. It is 63 days and sunny here in the upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts a sunny day with temperatures in the 70s this afternoon. Enjoy it, this is a perfect day, perfect temperatures, sunshine, nice. Get out, look at the world, it's paradise.

At 9:10 a.m. ET DOW futures are +48 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

Well now we've seen it all, but the best way that I have to express Trump world is simply this; he is not fit to lead. It's time to end this experiment in bizarre governance and unbearable ignorance, get rid of the horrible man-baby, and get an actual savvy person in there. Right now, we are in trouble.

summary - Memory performance decreases with increasing age. Cannabis can reverse these ageing processes in the brain. This was shown in mice by scientists at the University of Bonn with their colleagues at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel). Old animals were able to regress to the state of two-month-old mice with a prolonged low-dose treatment with a cannabis active ingredient. This opens up new options, for instance, when it comes to treating dementia.

Good morning. It is 53 degrees and mostly sunny here in the Upper Hudson Valley, the forecast predicts clouds, maybe even rain, and temperatures in the 60s this afternoon. The longer range forecast has temperatures up around 90 on Wednesday and Thursday along with sunshine. It could be a hot week. The sunshine, if it happens, will be welcome as it's been a very rainy Spring.

At 9:05 a.m. ET DOW futures are +48 and the price of oil per barrel is up. The market is poised to open moderately higher.

The bizarre and dangerous spectacle of the Trump administration continues. People are still scratching their heads over the obvious intention to shut down the Russia-Trump investigation with Comey's firing. Our poor country, we are in the hands of a nut. Allegedly Trump is taping everything and the tapes are supposed to get turned over. It's chaos.

summary - A pioneering new study uncovering the 'primitive atmosphere' surrounding a distant world could provide a pivotal breakthrough in the search to how planets form and develop in far-flung galaxies.